Growth of GaN free-standing nanowires by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy: structural and optical characterization

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Abstract
This paper reports on the growth, structural and optical properties of GaN free-stranding nanowires synthesized in catalyst-free mode on Si(111) substrate by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Cylindrical nanowires with a hexagonal cross-section defined by {10¯ 10} planes and diameters down to 20 nm were observed. The nanowire length increases as a function of their diameter, following the Gibbs-Thomson expression. The growth rate in the lateral direction was studied using thin AlN marker layers showing that the lateral over axial growth rate ratio can be tuned from ∼1% to ∼10% by changing the III/V flux ratio, with the lateral growth remaining homogeneous along the NW axis. Nanowire ensembles showed a strong near band edge photoluminescence up to room temperature. Low-temperature micro-photoluminescence from a single wire is peaked at 3.478 eV with broadening of 6-10 meV. This emission is similar to the luminescence of nanowire ensembles, which demonstrates strain homogeneity from wire to wire. The optical properties along the wire axis probed by micro-cathodoluminescence were found to be uniform, with no evidence of a higher defect density in the bottom part of the nanowires next to the Si substrate. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)